Dalit student's suicide: Fasting students taken to hospital

Seven students of the Hyderabad Central University who are on an indefinite hunger strike for the past four days following the alleged suicide by Dalit research scholar Rohith Vemula were on Saturday forcibly taken to the varsity’s health centre because of deteriorating health.

“Nobody (among varsity authorities) asked us to shift them to a hospital. We did it on our own considering their condition,” said HCU chief security officer T V Rao.

Tension prevailed on the campus as security personnel forcibly took the students to the hospital while other students shouted slogans and tried to stop the ambulance.

After these students were shifted, a leader of Joint Action Committee for Social Justice announced that they would continue the agitation.

Chief Medical Officer of the health centre Dr Ravindra Kumar said three of the seven students were subsequently shifted to a private hospital for further treatment after they were given first-aid at the centre.

“The remaining four students have been kept under observation. We cannot make any comment now. We will have to proceed depending upon their condition,” Dr Kumar said.

Earlier in the day, he had expressed concern about the agitating students’ health. “They have been on hunger strike for four days. What we had seen on the very first day and what we see today, it is a rapid deterioration of the medical status.... blood pressures are highly fluctuating and sugar levels are unstable.

“We feel that we need to intervene and medically give some support,” he had said.

However, G Prabhakar, one of the students who are on hunger strike, had said they would like to continue despite the doctors expressing concern until their demands were met. 

Image: Students participating in the hunger strike at Hyderabad Central University to protest Rohith Vemula's suicide. Photograph: PTI